Rail anchor



A.L.STANF0RD.Y

RAIL AN R.

APPLICATION HLED' .10, 1921.

Patented Feb. 14, 1922.

Uzi/ 6.55 20% z fig I z g UN'TEDISTATES To all whom it mayconcewt Be it known that I, ARTHUR L. STANFORD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the: county of Cook and. State oflllinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Rail Anchors, of whichthe follo;'\ \'ing-is a specification.

The rail anchor of this invention is designedprimarily' as an improvement upon the anchors shown in my Patent No. 1,347,301, issued July 20th,1920,- although, the special featureof improvement relates to the means provided for locking the clamp ingbolt in position on the shank, and the improvement may be employed and utilized in connection with anchors of varying constructions.

Anchors of the'typeto which the present invention is particularly applied, comprise a jaw member which overhangs one edge of the rail. base and is held in clamping position bymeans ofasuitable clip member orthe like which engages the opposite edge of therail base, being held in place by a nut which is threaded onto the anchor shank which underlies thebase of the. rail. It thus happens that the upper portion of the nut, and the threads on the upper side ofthe shank are subjected to a shearing stress to which the lower threads are not subjected in like degree, so that it becomes important to provide means for ensuring a wrench tight interlock between the co-acting threads, on the upper side of the shankin alignment with the rail base, and theiobject of the present invention is to ensure such a complete interlock at this point and also provide means for preventing the unthreading of the nut when subjected to the severe vibration incident to the pas sage of trains over the rail.

Further .objects and details of the inven-. tion will appear from the description of the invention, which consists in the features of construction hereinafter described 7 and claimed.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of the rail anchor showing the rail base and the nut in section; 1 I

Fig. 2 is-atop orplan view of the anchor showing the spring clip omitted. and the nutfiange struck overto subserve the func tion of the-clip;

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Feb,

-App1ication filed March 10,1921. SerialNo. 451,233."

PATENT OFFICE.

Anrrrun L. srranroan,

RAIL ANCHOR.

. F ig. 8 is a detail showing. the spring clip of Fig. 1, in place on the shank; Fig. 1 is a cross sectional view of the threaded end of the shank; and I F ig. threaded end of the shank.

The rail anchorcomprisesa jaw member 10 provided with a depending forwardly projecting foot 11 adapted to contact a tie at a point considerably below-the base of the rail. The jaw .member is grooved or channeled on its inner face to afford an upper gripping face 12 and a lower gripping 5 is aibottom plan view of the face 13 which converge inwardly, theupper face being. obliquely disposedto conform with the obliquity of the upper face of the rail base. 7 r

The front portion ofthe jaw contiguous to the foot 11 is provided with an outwardly extending-flange 1a which is reinforced by an outer vertical rib 15 and an intermediate vertical rib 16 and-an inner vertical rib 17, the intermediate and inner ribs upstanding from the surface of the upper gripping member and extending longitudinally thereof as shown in Big. 2.

Thejfoot 11 isalso reinforced by means of a vertical rib 18 which? depends from the lower face of the lower gripping mem- I,

her 13 and extends longitudinally thereof. The rib 18 in conjunction with the lower gripping face 13 merges into a transversely disposed shank 19, which shank at the point of mergence with the jaw member is flattened or widened as indicated at 20., being preferably cored and ribbed on its inner surface to afford the necessary,

strength and rigidity. The jaw end of the rail anchor abovedescribed is quite similar to that described in my Patent N 0. 1,847,301,

and no claim of novelty ispredicated on this portion of the structure. v

The free end 21 of the shank is rounded and threaded on its upper and lower faces 22 and 23 and flattened onits sides 24 which flatteningof the sides is desirable in order to facilitate the casting of the device also to prevent rotation of the clip ,member'now to be described. 3 7 :In the form shown in Fig. 1, a spring clip member 25 is employed,*the same being'in the form 'ofa split ring configured to closely embrace theflat sided shank and to slip over the threads on, the upper and lower faces thereof. The free ends 26 of the split spring clip are hooked over to furnish'fingers which embrace the edge of the rail base in opposition to the gripping jaw, on the oaposite side of the rail, and in order to a 0rd a nut locking effect, the spring clip is normally distorted from a true plane as inclicatedin dotted lines in Fig. 1, so that when the nut is tightly screwed toplace, it will exert apressure which has the effect of flattening out the spring clip and bringing both a members of the same into a flat plane of gripping contact with the rail base, thereby holding the nut under spring tension. By flattening the sides of the shank and fitting the spring clip closely thereto, the rotation of the latter is preventedand a more perfeet gripping effect is ensured. Although the presence of the spring clip affords a considerable measure of nut looking efiect, nevertheless, it is desirable to afford a more positive lock, and the means provided for securing these results constitute the principal feature of the present invention.

- The nut 27 is preferably ofcollar type and provided with a flange 28 which abuts against the spring clip, and in order to ensure an absolutely tight gripping effect between the shank and the nut,'the former on its under threaded face is provided with a thin [in 29, which terminates short of the outer end of the shank as best shown in Fig. 5. This fin constitutes a barrier which bridges the space between the threads, so that when the nut is applied, it will be necessary to employ the force of a heavy wrench to cause the threads of the nut to cut through the fin and this'has the effect not only of ensuring a tight'interthreading of the nut and shank, but is particularly effective in drawing down the nut into complete engagement with the threads on the upper face of the shank, so that the full effect of the threading will be utilized at a point immediately contiguous to the rail base which is the point subjected to the cross shearing stress when the device is in use, at the same time the cutting of the nut threads through the fin will afford an adequate interlocking to prevent a retraction of the nut when subjected to severe vibration.

This method of ensuring a complete interlocking is particularly serviceable in a device 1 construction in which the spring clip is omitted and the nut flange struck down at a point 30 contiguous to the upper portion ofthe rail base to overlie the same, and at ford a clipping effect and it is obvious that other forms of clips or the like may be employed in lieu of those herein particularly described, in all of which cases, the method applied in the threading of the nut heretofore described are equally available.

It will be observed that the fin terminates inside of the free end of the shank which aflords means for easily applying the nut to the shank and of screwing it inwardly to a sufficient distance to ensure a substantial grip on the threads before the-fin is encountered, after whicha heavy wrench will be required to cut through the fin and draw up the nut to its final position. The rail anchor is one which may be cast without any difficulty and applied to the rail without the use of special tools and appliances.

I claim: j

l. A rail anchor comprising a jaw member adapted to embrace the flange ofa rail,

a cross connecting member threaded at its opposite end, a fin on the lower side of the threaded portion, and a nut adapted'when screwed to clamping position to cut through the fin, substantially as described.

2. A rail anchor comprising a jaw mem-' threaded portion, a nut adapted when screwed to clamping position to cut through the fin, and a clamping member adapted to be engaged by the nut and held against the contiguous rail flange, substantially as described.

3. A rail anchor comprising a jaw member adapted to embrace the flange of a rail, a cross connecting member threaded at its opposite end, av fin on the lower side of the threaded portion, a nut adapted when screwed to clamping position to cut through the fin, and a split spring clamping member having fingers adapted to engage a rail flange in opposition to the jaw member, and

and adapted to be forced into a true plane of contact with the rail flange by the screwing up of the nut, substantially as described.

4. In a rail anchor, the combination of a jaw member adapted to engage the flange of a rail, a cross member threaded at its free end and flattened on its sides, a fin traversing the threads on the lower face of the threaded end of the cross connecting member, and terminating short of the extreme'end thereof,

and a nut adapted when screwed to place to cut through the fin, substantially as 5 described. i V

5. In a rail anchor, the combination of a jaw member adapted to engage the, flange of a rail, a cross member thread edvat its free end and flattened on its sides, a fin traversin the threads on the lower face of the threade end of the cross connecting member, and a nut adapted when screwed to place to cut place to cut through the fin, the fin being through the fin, substantially as described. so located in position as to cause the nut 10 6. In a rail anchor, a rail gripping memto be drawn into close engagement with the her, provided with jaws adapted to embrace threads at the upper side and at a point 5 the flange of a rail, a cross connecting memcontiguous with the rail flange, substanber provided with threads at its opposite tially as described. end, a fin extending across the threaded surface, and a nut adapted when threaded in ARTHUR L. STANFORD. 

